the destruction of a ship at sea by sinking or breaking up, for example in a storm or after striking a rock

these islands have a history of shipwrecks and smuggling

the angry waves, whose fury heralds shipwreck

by rejecting conscience, they have made a shipwreck of their faith

(of a person or ship) suffer a shipwreck

the English envoy was shipwrecked off the coast of Sardinia and nearly drowned

she found herself clinging to the kitchen cabinet like a shipwrecked mariner to a rock